Fresh off a first-round bye, Hershey came to life at the tail end of a previously scoreless first period, lighting the lamp twice less than three minutes apart to carry a lead into the intermission.
That momentum carried into second, as the Bears tacked on two more in the opening five minutes - the first chasing starter Mack Guzda from the contest and the latter giving the visitors a towering 4-0 advantage.
The Checkers chipped into that deficit, with Lucas Carlsson converting on a power play shortly after Hershey’s fourth tally and Santtu Kinnunen sneaking one through traffic and in midway through the third to cut the lead in half. The home squad continued to buzz down the stretch but couldn’t find any more traction, and an empty netter sealed the lopsided final for Hershey.
QUOTES
Coach Geordie Kinnear on the gameWe were down 2-0 early and chasing the game. Against an elite team like that, you definitely don’t want to be down 2-0.
Kinnear on more successful stretches later in the game
We have to play to our identity. I thought we didn’t do that early. It took us a little bit to get to it, and once we got going you see the success we had. We have to play that way for 60 minutes and we have to commit to it. I didn’t feel like we did that the whole game.
Kinnear on generating scoring chances
It’s the playoffs. You’ve got to compete to score and you’ve got to compete on seconds and thirds. We just want to get quality chances, people at the net and get it there. We weren’t to our identity the whole game, but we’ll be better next game.
Kinnear on switching goaltenders and putting J-F Berube in the game
He made some good saves, but I don’t (want to) have to keep doing that. That’s a couple of times now. We want to start with a goalie and we want to end with a goalie, but J-F did a good job coming in.
Kinnear on players stepping into the lineup
It is what it is. We’ve done it all year. We had some guys out due to illness, so guys stepped in. That’s the name of the game.
